Breakaways

NHL 16 Breakaways Written Guide

How to Get on a Breakaway:

Cross Ice Dump

Best way to employ this counter-attack tactic is to wait until your opponent takes a shot on goal and it trickles to one of the corners of the ice. When you get the puck with your defenseman, immediately hold RB or R1, aim to the opposite side and up with your left stick and push up on the right stick. This will dump the puck to around the red line on the opposite corner of the ice. If your opponent is aggressive, this will likely go past all of his forwards to your forward who is charging up the boards to collect it. He won’t have enough time to switch to his defenseman to turn them around quickly enough to catch up to you especially if you hold down the left stick to sprint as you do it. This will set you up for an angled breakaway.

Off The Boards

EA has programmed the skaters to go into CRAZY FULL SPEED MODE if you ricochet the puck off the boards when sending it up to your forward from your defenseman on the same side. Instead of slowly accepting the pass, the player starts charging up the ice and magnetically collects the puck in stride. This is perfect for catching the defenseman completely off guard and you can blow by them on your way to the net. This will set you up for an angled breakaway.

Tip the Cross Point Pass

Stalk your prey as they pass back and forth to their defenseman at the point. Instead of defending the player, defend the pass. Play as the center and as soon as you see that they are going to try to pass it from one defender to the other, charge up, and either tip with the pokecheck or if you’re already in the way, allow your player to intercept the pass and then charge up the ice. This will set you up for a straight on breakaway.

Helpful Tip: Breakaways are much easier when the Coaching Strategy is set at least set to Aggressive, otherwise your computer AI will be too conservative to set up a breakaway.

During the Breakaway:

Sprinting

If you’re not sprinting on a breakaway, you’re going to get caught. The first thing you want to do when you see you have a chance at a breakaway is to sprint full speed ahead. This will ensure that you have enough space to deke out the goaltender once you slow down.

Slowing Down

Always make sure to release your sprint at around the hash marks and just glide. EA has made shooting while sprinting equivalent to shooting while blindfolded. This has the added benefit of freeing up your left thumb to aim your shot.

Positioning:

If possible, you’re going to want to make sure you are facing the goalie head on. However, if this isn’t possible due to defenders in your way, don’t force it. It will be more difficult, but scoring on an angled breakaway is an effective way to score.

Scoring on the Breakaway:

Straight On:

Deking to the backhand, deking to the forehand, and then shooting is the most common way to score on the breakaway. Try some fun combinations such as forehand/backhand or backhand/forehand/backhand, or forehand/backhand/forehand…

Another easy way to score on a breakaway is by doing a skate kick and then using the back hand, fore hand deke. Do a skate kick at the hash marks, deke to your back hand then pull it back to your fore hand and take a quick wrist shot. This will get the goalie out of position and usually results in a goal.

Angled Breakaway:

A great way to beat the goalie if your stick is facing the boards is to do a wrister short-side by holding your right joystick to the side and then rolling it up to the 12 o’ clock position. Make sure to aim top shelf and for a player with a decent wrist shot rating, this should easily beat the goaltender.

Another great way to beat the goalie if your player’s stick is facing the boards, is to press “A” or “X” to protect the puck to your outside (forehand) and just as you pass the hash marks deke to your back hand and score a back hand wrist shot. This will get the goalie out of position and usually results in a goal.

If your stick is facing the middle of the ice, slow up, and send a wrister to the far side. The goalies are much worse at defending the far side shot in this game, take advantage of it.

Hope that helps you finish strong on your breakaways!

–TacTixHD

2 thoughts on “Breakaways”

I find that the cross point tip works good against the CPU. Use the tight point and press the points and make them force passes. You will get burned at first but works once you figure out when to press and not press.